MILAN, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Italian holding company Exor said on Monday French insurer Covea had agreed to invest a total of 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion), partly in vehicles managed by PartnerRE after a deal to buy the reinsurer from Exor fell apart earlier this year.

The holding company of Italy's Agnelli family said Covea would invest 750 million euros alongside Exor.

It would also allocate a similar amount with a three- to five-year lock-up period in a number of special purpose insurance vehicles managed by PartnerRE, investing in property catastrophe and other short-tail reinsurance contracts.

"After having decided definitively to continue our project to build one of the world's leading independent reinsurers, we're more than happy now to have been able to agree with Covéa this constructive cooperation extending also to other fields of our activity," Exor Chairman John Elkann said.

Covea in May walked away from its planned $9 billion purchase of PartnerRe, the Bermuda-based reinsurer, saying it could no longer buy under the terms of their agreement, following the COVID-19 outbreak. ($1 = 0.8519 euros) (Reporting by Valentina Za; editing by James Mackenzie)